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Adviser Support Centre

France Unclaimed Life Insurance Policies

Do you have a client who has or stands to benefit from an unclaimed life insurance policy with links to France?

On 1 January 2016, a new law came into effect in France which changes what happens to the money insurers should pay out for life insurance policies but which has not been claimed by the policyholder or any beneficiaries for at least ten years.

This law will impact all policies Prudential International have sold in France. If you have a client with a policy which expired more than ten years ago or who stands to benefit from a policy which covered someone who died at least ten years ago, but they haven’t yet claimed the amounts due under the policy, they could be affected.

New law limits how long you have to claim

Until recently, there was no time limit on when someone needed to make a claim with us. However, the new law now limits how long people have to claim and will change how they need to make a claim if that time limit has passed.

The new rules apply to any money due from a policy that has been unclaimed for at least ten years, either from when the insurer first became aware of the death of the insured person, or from when the policy expired. Where this applies, the insurer must transfer any unclaimed amounts to a French public body called the Caisse des dépots et consignations (CDC) within one month after the ten-year time limit.

The insurer will still need to keep records of these policies – it’s just the money that will be transferred.

Once the money has been transferred from the insurer to the CDC, anyone wanting to claim on an affected policy will have to do so through the CDC. The CDC’s online search tool to help people find and recover their money is now available.

If sums held by the CDC have still not been claimed 20 years after the transfer from the insurer (that is, 30 years after the insurer becomes aware of the death of the insured person or after the policy has expired), the CDC will pass them to the French government. After that, no one can claim them.

Clients need to act now to claim on their policy

Starting in January 2017, the money that is due but has not been claimed from existing policies for the last 10 years since the insurer became aware of the death of the insured person or from the expiry of the policy must be transferred to the CDC. Where the money due from these policies has not been claimed for the last 30 years, it must be transferred to the French government.

We want to make sure that your clients claim any money they are entitled to before this happens. So if you think any of your clients might have links to a policy from us that is affected by this new law, please ask them to contact us, or please contact us on their behalf, as soon as possible.

The registered office of Prudential International is in Ireland at Montague House, Adelaide Road, Dublin 2. Prudential International is a marketing name of Prudential International Assurance plc, a life assurance company operating from Ireland. Registration No. 209956. Telephone number + 353 1 476 5000. Prudential International Assurance plc is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland.